Articles designed for support, protection or comfort may be realized in a variety of forms. For instance lightweight structural materials, such as the honeycomb, are designed with orthogonal relationships between the x and y planes and the z plane in its members. Other support, protection or comfort articles may be collapsible or flat-packed materials that also use orthogonal relationships between the members. These honeycomb, collapsible or flat-packed materials often require a second material to achieve structural rigidity such as exterior panels to sandwich a honeycomb core fixed between the panels or as an infill material that holds the honeycomb in place. Many other prior art honeycomb materials are often cut as strips and attached to each other with a binding agent. Alternatively, they can be cut and assembled with simple halved joints in some applications or created by removing material from a solid piece.
A simple space frame truss commonly used in engineering applications is able to accommodate long spans and/or structural support for heavy loads. The structural advantage of the space frame is that it derives its strength from the inherent rigidity of the triangular frame. Flexing loads (bending moments) are transmitted as tension and compression loads along the length of each strut. The simplest space frame is a series of interlocking square pyramids and provides the basis for the structural system of the designed material.
Thus a support, protection, or comfort article is desired that includes a method of assembling a support article from a single sheet or strips of material, with the potential for no waste. A support article is also desired to have a design of the material that incorporates the properties of a honeycomb structure with the structural efficiency of triangulation. The triangle is one of the strongest shapes known and is the most ideal shape for structural efficiency and by employing the triangle as the basic shape in the desired support article, the material can offer strong and rigid structural and support solutions by virtue of the triangle's structural efficiency.
A support article is further desired to have the potential to exist on its own without the need for a second material for structural support. With a unitary design, the product allows for efficiency in production. A unitary article may be realized by cutting and assembling the article from a single sheet of material thus offering advantages in manufacturing of the article.